Why are NFL kickers missing so many extra points?

DAVIE — The Miami Dolphins have a kicker named Andrew Franks who has made all 24 of his extra point attempts this season.

Miami does not take this for granted.

Extra points are now 33 yards and it turns out each of the top five scoring kickers in the NFL have missed at least one attempt this season.

In Week 11, a whopping 12 extra point tries were missed, an NFL record.

The leading theory of Dolphins assistant head coach and special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi is an interesting one. Defensive players have actually begun trying to stop the kick.

“Back when the old rule was in place, I think the players would probably self-admittedly tell you as well that sometimes that was almost a play off for the defense,” Rizzi said. “You could look at the whole play and it didn’t matter how hard you came, the guy was going to make the kick. You could have the best effort in the world and the ball was still going to go between (the uprights). Now, there’s like a light of hope that, ‘Hey, we can block this thing.'”

Before last season, the NFL changed an extra point from a 15-yard gimme (99 percent accuracy) to a 33-yard field goal (94 percent), which made it a more competitive play.

But six teams now have an extra point percentage below 90 percent (Jets, Browns, Giants, Bengals, Seahawks and Vikings, worst in the NFL at 79 percent.)

Former Vikings kicker Blair Walsh was cut after missing four.

The Vikings signed Kai Forbath this week. And he had one blocked.

Former NFL kicker Jay Feeley cited “cumulative pressure” as a key factor on “Inside The NFL” this week.

Essentially, an extra point is so psychologically expected (still) that a miss can lead to psychological debiliation.

Earlier this season, Rizzi said kickers need to treat shorter field goals (and extra points) in an identical fashion, not alter anything, in the same way a pro golfer shouldn’t alter approach on a short putt.

“Again, what you’re seeing is the field goal block units are treating that play like a field goal now, where the old days, when it was PAT, they didn’t,” Rizzi said. “You were almost protecting against making sure they didn’t fake it. You didn’t have the rush coming after you. So the whole complexion of the play has completely changed. And that’s why – I know somebody asked me maybe like a month ago about (Andrew) Franks and PATs as opposed to field goals – to me, we no longer grade it like that. We grade it like we combine them.”

There was a time when the Dolphins didn’t even bother “practicing” extra points.

This season, Miami begins each field goal period by placing the ball at the middle of the field on the 15-yard line (a 33-yard attempt.)

“Now the protection can’t relax anymore because again, it’s our mentality,” Rizzi said. “We’re trying to drum into the players that this is a 33-yard field goal. We know we only get one point out of it, but it’s the same mentality. But yes, there’s no doubt. I thought kickers, some guys might relax, and I think that’s changing quickly.”

Rizzi found it interesting that field goal kickers are making a higher percentage of 33-yard field goals than 33-yard extra points this season. This again leads one down a psychological path.

Statisticians have been strongly encouraging coaches to go for the two-point conversion try more often (if not always) because as one may say, the long-term scoring odds are in their favor.

The issue, of course, is that coaches aren’t statisticians.

“The statistician doesn’t have to come up here and answer to the fans and everybody else,” Rizzi said.